Yesterday Everton Football Club informed The Sun newspaper it was banned from Goodison Park, the USM Finch Farm training ground and all areas of the club's operation. Whilst we will not dignify any journalist with a response to appalling and indefensible allegations, the newspaper has to know that any attack on [Liverpool], either against a much respected community or individual, is not acceptable.

MacKenzie wrote that midfielder Barkley was punched in a nightclub because, he suggested, the player was like an animal in a zoo.

He wrote: "Perhaps unfairly, I have always judged Ross Barkley as one of our dimmest footballers. There is something about the lack of reflection in his eyes which makes me certain not only are the lights not on, there is definitely nobody at home.

"I get a similar feeling when seeing a gorilla at the zoo. The physique is magnificent but it's the eyes that tell the story."

Barkley has a grandfather who was born in Nigeria, and Merseyside Police are investigating whether MacKenzie's column consitutes a "racial hate crime."

He also suggested that the only other people who earned as much as Barkley in Liverpool were drug dealers.

The Sun described these comments as "unfunny", when it announced his suspension on Friday. It has said MacKenzie was unaware of Barkley's racial heritage.

The Sun and MacKenzie already have a poor relationship with Liverpool and Everton's rival club, Liverpool FC, over their coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.